MOSCOW, June 22 /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Sunday told the nationwide TV audiences about artillery shelling that occurred the previous night on the territory of Ukraine.
“Unfortunately, the things we’re registering with the aid of specialized recorders prove that combat operations don’t stop in Ukraine and we saw a rather intense activity of Ukrainian artillery last night,” Putin said on a live program of Rossiya’24 channel.
“I don’t have enough details to say who’s actually doing it - the regular army or the armed squads of the ‘Right Forces’ of some kind,” he said. “But anyway that’s happening in reality.”
“It’s important to press towards a situation where all the combat actions stop,” Putin said.
He also emphasized the importance of a precisely-targeted and meaty dialogue, adding: “That’s a prerequisite for success.”
“What (Ukraine’s) President Poroshenko said about the final peace settlement is no doubt an important element of eventual settlement and no agreements about anything at all can be reached about it,” Putin said. “Russia will support these plans but the main thing in the final run is the political process as such.”
Saturday night, Petro Poroshenko addressed his fellow-countrymen with explanations regarding the provisions of his peace plan.
His initiative for settling the conflict in the southeast of the country envisions among the things guarantees of security for all participants in negotiations, revoking of criminal responsibility of the people who did not commit heinous crimes and who laid down arms, a release of hostages, the setting up of a 10-kilometers-wide buffer zone along the border with Russia, withdrawal of paramilitary units, withdrawal from illegally occupied administrative buildings in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, resumption of operations by local agencies of power, a revamping of radio and TV broadcasting in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, steps towards decentralization of power, early local and parliamentary elections, creation of new jobs and rehabilitation of the industrial sector and infrastructures in the region.
Also, Poroshenko said the Russian language, which is a native tongue for the greater part of the population in both Donetsk and Lugansk regions, would be used freely “at the level of local communities”, and that his peace settlement plan also had an alternative version.